Ringgold Quilt Squares

Narrative Art

Fiber Arts Fusion…sounds like a good summer art camp theme…hmm. Anyway I love this project more and more each year. I’m starting to “get it”. So glad I’ve been teaching this awesome lesson all along!

Day One:  Read and discuss “Tar Beach” by Faith Ringgold. If I could fly, I would fly______________.

To, over, across, under, inside, above…they loved brainstorming places.

 

We sketch out our full-body self-portrait and practice writing our sentence in our Idea Books. Then we draw a one-inch border on a 12”x12” square. They just used the width of the ruler sliding it from edge to edge…no fancy measuring involved.

Next we illustrate our Quilt Square with pencil and trace with Sharpie.

We color these with crayons and finally add one-inch squares of fabric around the border.

I love how the story implied that once you fly over something, you own it forever. This artist really embraced that idea!

“I have the hole circus now!”….

Paper Mask Sculptures with 2nd Grade

3 Day Lesson, Collage and Sculpture

This is an annual 2nd grade sculpture project. They have a lot fun creating these very creative masks and this year might be some of the best!

Day One is building the face, chin and nose. We fold 9x18 paper in half and cut out a large semi-circle. We build a 3D chin and nose that sticks out from the face.  (I’ll have to find some pictures of those steps…)

 

Day Two is adding the features of the face. I have a 3 layer minimum for the eyes and we discuss contrast. So often kids will layer orange on orange on orange…ugh.

 

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Here’s my examples and I demonstrate how to make 3D eye lashes/eye lids.

 

Day Three is HAIR DAY! This year I got smart and laid out strips of paper. I used to have them work with chunks, but this is WAY BETTER! They have to style each piece of hair and not only does it take a whole class period, but the hair looks amazing and full.

I demo how to glue the hair to the back of the mask cascading over the forehead for a more natural effect.

We do all kinds of paper sculpture techniques to add volume to the hair. I’ll have to post my “poster” for hair styles.

(Hallway displays)

I use EZ clips to hang all my art that won’t fit on the racks in the hallway. Tape will not stick to our walls and hot gluing is strongly discouraged. The EZ clips are awesome! I think I buy them from Blick?